On Monday night, the DUP held a meeting of its Party Executive. The DUP Leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson MP outlined the contents of a potential deal with the UK Government to restore power-sharing in Northern Ireland.
After more than five hours of debate, discussion and interesting tweeting, the Party Executive voted to approve the deal in an outcome that Sir Jeffrey said was “decisive.”
Sir Jeffrey delivered a press conference in the early hours of Tuesday morning, confirming that the DUP would endorse the deal with the UK Government underpinned by legislative changes, including modification of the Windsor Framework. The endorsement of this deal paves the way for a DUP return to power-sharing nearly two years to the day from their departure from it.
Sir Jeffrey Donaldson MP: what is said to be in the deal?
- Speaking after the party meeting last night, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson MP said that the endorsement of the deal would be subject to “binding commitments” between the DUP and the UK Government being delivered as agreed. He said these commitments would include the tabling and passing of new legislative measures in Parliament and final agreement on a timetable.
- He said that that there have been significant improvements following the negotiations and that the UK Government will publish the details of the deal in due course. The deal is now expected to be published by the Government in full on Wednesday. ?Sir Jeffrey Donaldson MP said that the deal will:
- Introduce legislation to provide new legal and practical protections for the Acts of Union which guarantees unfettered access for NI businesses to the rest of the UK.
- Remove checks on goods moving in the “green lane” which are goods moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland and staying within the UK.
- There is already a basis for cross-party support at Westminster for the agreed measures so that regardless of who forms the next UK Government, these agreed measures will be taken forward beyond the forthcoming general election.
- He confirmed that “the package of measures in totality does provide a basis for our party to nominate members to the Executive” and said there would now be important preparatory work so that local ministers could “hit the ground running.”
- A UK Government Command Paper is due to be published tomorrow setting out the deal.
- Sir Jeffrey Donaldson will do a round of media interviews on Thursday (BBC Radio Ulster - Stephen Nolan Show and TalkBack) where he will field questions. He is also due to deliver a lecture at Queen’s University Belfast on Thursday evening.
- Parties entitled to sit in the Executive have been meeting with the Secretary of State today to discuss timetabling and arrangements.
- The UK Government is expected to pass legislation to make the necessary changes agreed in the deal. This legislation is likely to come in the shape of Statutory Instruments and could be introduced in the coming days.
- The UK and EU have been coordinating announcements today (Tuesday) regarding changes to processes around the checking of goods and tariffs through the Joint Committee.Any return to an Executive will be influenced by a number of factors including:
- Agreement between the parties on any Programme for Government - how much agreement is there? will there be any last minute bids?
- Agreement about how the Department of Justice is allocated - as yet we haven't seen the legislation required to allow it to be allocated under d'Hondt but could we see it in the next couple of days?
- Whether the UUP will enter the Executive or go into opposition? there are arguments on both sides but smaller parties in the south and GB as well as locally haven't particularly fared well in coalition - think Labour Party and Greens in the south, the Lib Dems in GB and both the UPP and the SDLP here.
- The degree, if any public dissent within the DUP over the next few days. Will any of the MP or Lords come out fighting or will they be content following the joint committee decision today?
With Donaldson framing the agreement as representing progress against the 7 tests rather than meeting them in their entirety, its clear that this is just the start…